Giovanni Pierluigi da, a most distinguished composer of music, took his surname from that small town in the Roman Campagna in which he was born. The name of his family, their station, the date of his birth, and that of his death, remain doubtful, notwithstanding the long and indefatigable inquiries of the Abate Baiati, director of the Pope's chapel at Rome, whose work on Palestrina is the most complete and accurate yet published. The probable facts stated by the abate are,—that Palestrina's parents were poor, that he was born in 1524, and that he died on 2d February 1594, aged seventy. It appears that he went to Rome in 1540, and studied music in the school established there by the French musician Claude Goudimel, the best musicians in the chief chapels of Italy being at that time natives of France, or Belgium, or Spain. In 1551 Palestrina was appointed maestro di cappella of the Julian chapel, and was the first musician on whom that title of chapel-master was conferred. In 1554 he published his first collection of masses, four of them for four voices, and one for five. They were dedicated to Pope Julius III., who, in January 1555, appointed Palestrina one of the singers of the pontifical chapel. Palestrina had married when young, and his wife bore him four sons, the youngest of whom edited the two last books of his father's masses. When Pope Paul VI. succeeded Pope Marcellus II., he took offence at those singers in the papal chapel who were married, and expelled them on that account. One of these was Palestrina. On 1st October 1555 Palestrina was appointed chapel-master of St John of Lateran, a post which he held for about five years, and during which time he composed some of his finest works. On 1st March 1561 he improved his income by becoming chapel-master of Santa-Maria Maggiore, and held that office till 31st March 1571. In 1563 the Council of Trent having censured the profane words and music introduced into masses, Pope Pius IV. ordered this matter to be reformed. Palestrina was invited to compose a mass upon the reformed plan. He composed three for six voices. One of them (called Missa Papae Marcelli) was thought so admirable that Pius IV. rewarded its author by naming him composer to the pontifical chapel, with a salary of nine scudi (about L.2) a month. Afterwards Pope Gregory XIV. increased that salary. In April 1571 Palestrina once more entered the chapel of St Peter in the Vatican, and finally became director of the

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1 Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, &c., Rome, 1828, 2 vols. 4to. Palestrina school of counterpoint formed by Namini. In July 1580 the death of his wife caused him great affliction; and he seems to have passed the last years of his life in very straitened circumstances. He alludes to his struggles with poverty in the dedication to Sixtus V. of his first book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, for four voices, 1588. He died on 2d February 1594, and was interred in the Vatican, the following inscription being engraved on his tomb:—“Joannes Petrus Aloysius Pranestinus. Musicae Princeps.” A fine portrait of Palestrina is given in the Abate Baini’s work above cited. In the church style of composition Palestrina attained a degree of excellence which has never been equalled. His style is pure, noble, and flowing. His voice parts are written with the greatest skill, each part being made to sing in a simple, free, and natural manner, and using only the best notes belonging to each kind of voice; while the whole voices concur in producing the smoothest and best effect. When Cherubini taught composition in the Paris Conservatory, he analyzed and explained the works of Palestrina as models of the highest style of church music. Besides a vast quantity of music for the church, Palestrina composed two books of madrigals for four voices, and one for five. These madrigals are admirable, though too little known in Great Britain. His published works consist of thirteen books of Masses, six books of Motets, one book of Lamentations, one book of Hymns, one book of Offerteries, one book of Magnificat, one book of Litanies, one book of Spiritual Madrigals, and three books of Madrigals. Many of his unpublished compositions are preserved in the Vatican Library. The Abate Baini had prepared a complete collection in score of all Palestrina’s works, but there is little prospect now of its publication.

(Palestrina (anciently Praneste), an episcopal town of the Papal States, on the slope of a hill, 23 miles E.S.E. of Rome. Among its public buildings are the church of Santa Rosalia, and the old palace of the Barberini family. It still contains many remains of its ancient splendour. Manufactures of woollen cloth are carried on here. Pop. 6000. (See Praneste.)